Dana well owners in limbo, waiting on grants

Tuesday

Jul 16, 2013 at 5:36 PM

Dana residents with tainted well water have learned that relief may come at a higher price than originally estimated.

By Emily WeaverTimes-News Staff Writer

Dana residents with tainted well water have learned that relief may come at a higher price than originally estimated.An engineer told homeowners at a community meeting Monday night that the city waterline extension project could cost $805,000 — or $200,000 more than the previously estimated $600,000 price tag. The project will now likely include an extension of the line down Ridge Road, past the majority of the homes affected off of Academy Road, to help another property found with contaminated water. But city Utilities Director Lee Smith said the true cost of the project could still be lower than the estimate he heard last night.Homeowners learned last month that the $300,000 grant from the N.C. Rural Center they were hoping for was approved and will be awarded to the county to cover a good portion of the project's cost. The city applied for a $100,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission after an April pre-qualification. Smith said they may not know the status of the grant until the fall, but they won't have to wait for the answer before they start the work.“We can write a waiver letter which tells them that we're going to proceed at our own risk,” whether or not we get the grant, he said.The process to get clean water flowing in the community has been stalled by the grant process the past several months. In many cases, grants are not awarded for projects already under way. City and county officials were quick to apply for grants to help ease the burden of the project's cost, but homeowners banned from their well water have waited months for the applications to get through the red tape.City officials could have to wait up to six more months before they learn about a N.C. Department of Commerce Community Development Block Grant that could cover the rest of the project's cost. Funding for Community Development Block Grants is tied up in the state's budget.However, Smith said they learned Monday night that a special pot of funding for “critical needs” exists in the Department of Commerce for projects such as this one. The city plans to come up with a more solid estimated project cost Wednesday to know exactly how much to ask for. “It became pretty obvious that we were going to have to talk to our legislators” after the meeting, Smith said, “and see if they can expedite that funding for us.”Funds were quickly secured for the project through the Bernard Allen Memorial Emergency Drinking Water fund, which may cover $180,000 to up to a third of the relief's cost.Reach Weaver at emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.